KUMA - Honey & Groat

Rocafort Records

£21.60

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: ROCLP008
Barcode: 5050580777316
Release Date: 14 Oct 2022
Genre: Jazz Fusion

01: Medved Minor - KUMA0
02: Niffty Teddy - KUMA
03: Knut the Great - KUMA
04: Feux-Gris - KUMA
05: Trois petits beusseukeu (feat. Shems Bendali & Zacharie Ksyk) - KUMA
06: Novaïa Zemilia - KUMA
07: Tale of the Two Tails - KUMA
08: Der Kuss (feat. Léo Chambet) - KUMA
09: Tardigrada (feat. Cyril Moulas) - KUMA

Ever since jazz took its bop and free turn, each generation solved this eternal equation: how do you reconcile serious music and simple pleasure? On each of these occasions opinion was divided between orthodoxy and hedonism.

Trained in the theoretical rigours of classical music and jazz, experts on their instruments, and brought up on hip-hop culture, techno and house club scenes, Matthieu Llodra and Arthur Donnot - composers of KUMA – go against the conventional rules because they like to challenge their musical boundaries.

"Honey & Groat" is just like a bear (KUMA in Japanese, emblem of the band): behind the sweetness and apparent placidity, plenty of power. The resulting urban groove is reminiscent of 70's soul jazz with a contemporary sound: where instrumental talent meets pop simplicity.